Just did my weekly check of my existing Delta reservations and found that the return flight for my Cozumel vacation in August originates in Atlanta. Called and was told Delta just pulled the plug on Monday-Friday flights to CZM from ATL. Never got an email with that change although I did get one letting me know my outbound flight departure time changed by 3 minutes.
On a similar note.. I planned a trip from Phoenix to Long Beach for the big Scuba Expo over the weekend (6/4 and 6/5) booking through US Scareways because they flew from Phoenix to Long Beach Muni airport. So I got everything together, booked my flight, booked my hotel, paid for my bag online, bought my Expo tickets, got ALL confirmations, boarding pass, etc. planning on spending most of the day Saturday at the Expo and all day Sunday taking in the exhibits and seminars (I bought the expensive seminar tickets).
I got up at 4:45 am to catch the 7:00am shuttle from Prescott to Phoenix (another $60.00) for the early flight to Long Beach, all excited to see all the nifty exhibits. I checked everything over from my 3 days of preparing for the trip and headed on out.
I got to Phoenix and went to US Airways to check my bag and when I scanned my boarding pass it said "FLIGHT CANCELLED". I got a ticket agent and they checked and gave me the old standby "Mechanical Problems" but said there was another flight to Long Beach in 5 hours (actually 6 because I was there an hour early). That meant sitting at the Phoenix airport for 6 more hours. I asked if they were sure that the later flight would be going and not cancel out because of mechanical problems and they said ??????????? NO !!
So I stood there knowing that if I waited for the later flight it would get me in to late to go to any of the Saturday events and then I wondered if I would get stuck in Long Beach on the trip home. So I opted to cancel the whole trip rather than take the chance of waiting only to have the second flight cancelled and/or getting their late and loosing all of Saturdays seminars I had planned on going to. I asked what they would do to compensate me and they said "NOTHING" except give me my money back for the flight and I could apply for the baggage fee through the web site.
So I am out the whole Expo. The hotel would only give me credit for one night since I was within the 24 hour cancellation rule, I lost the cost of all my Expo Tickets and the $60.00 shuttle ride. But if I had waited and the second flight was also cancelled I would have lost both nights at the hotel as well as all the other costs.
I figured that if this would have been a week or longer dive vacation or another type of vacation I would have stuck it out but it just wasn't worth the hassle for a trip that was now knocked down to one day and then take the chance of problems heading home and have to add up more costs (like renting a car and driving up to LAX to get a flight home).
Even as much as we are getting screwed by the airlines day after day I try not to let it get to me.. but now when problems happen they just shrug their shoulders and say "nothing we can do". I was told that if I didn't like it I could go on the web site and email or write to their customer relations department. I asked for a phone number so I could talk to a real person and they said.. sorry, no phone.. just email or write and wait for them to reply. I asked how long that would take and they just shrugged and said I would have to go to the web site to find out.
I still don't know where to go to get my baggage fee back, can't find anything on the web site.
BUT !!! When I got home in the middle of the day there was a phone message telling me that my flight had been cancelled. According to my machine's time stamp it came in after the flight was scheduled to leave. Even though they had my email address for my iPhone to send me ALL my flight info, bar code boarding pass, seat assignment, etc. They called my home number after the flight was supposed to leave and left me a message that it was cancelled.
What a way to screw up a great weekend !!
